China Day 1 and 2

ed. – This is the first in a series of journal entries about Mary’s trip to China. It may take me a bit to get them all up but I thought that they would be interesting.

Dec 17/18

Monday/Tuesday seemed like aneternity. I woke up at 2:00 in the morning because Gene wanted us to meet atthe airport at 3:00, a good 3 hours before our flight. I was staying with the Hickey’s and we left at about 2:15. I was so tired I couldn’t function and Luke couldn’t either. He talked the entire way to the airport trying to keephimself awake. We got there a little early and waited for the rest of the crew.

Then we checked in and got in the security line and I have to admit that was thebiggest security line I have ever seen, especially at 4:00 in the morning. Once we finally got out of security, we got all of our things and started walking toour gate at 5-5:15 am. Finally after we arrived at our gate we maybe sat downfor about 10 minutes and then they started boarding our flight to Detroit.

I barely slept on the flight to Detroit ’cause it was only about 2 hours from North Carolina and once we got there we just had to wait and get on another plane…but this time to Tokyo. We sat there for 3 1/2 hoursjust waiting to board and another 30 minutes to actually take off. Thankgoodness there was a McDonalds near by were we could get a “filling yethealthy” meal. Once we finished watching this really cool fountain

we had found in the Detroit airport we headed back to our gate were everyone was just getting ready to board. The airplane, or should I say Airbus, was huge.There were two floors, but the top floor was only for the first class. The flight was 13 hours and I sat by myself, well not all by myself, just with people I didn’t know.

The girl sitting next to me was really nice though. She was going to Korea to visit her family because she is going to college in the Americas. We would start talking to each other on the rare occasion when bothof us were up and she was really fun to talk to. Other than just sleep and talk, I watched movies. There were huge screens in each section of seats, they gave you headphones, and they put on movie after movie of everything from The Simpson’s Movie to Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. The only downside was the food. I got way grossed out by the beef I got but the chicken the Korean girl next tome got didn’t seem very appetizing either. The rolls, fruit and salad were goodbut the meat was just so slimy and too chewy.It was also weird because I ate dinner for lunch but I didn’t have breakfast I fell asleep and apparently the girl sitting next to mecould not wake me up. I can’t help it…I am a heavy sleeper. Oh and in the middle of the plane flight I met one of my NCYTE friends by the bathroom and she showed me how you could see the Alaskan Mountains. It was amazing because they seemed so close to the plane I felt like we were going to crash into them.

So after my ears had popped over a million times we hadfinally landed in Tokyo, Japan and went through security where you didn’t have to take off you shoes. Amazing! And let me tell you, many people in my company like Luke and me took off their shoes but I found out my mistake and quickly put my shoes.

Poor Luke he was waiting forever for his shoes but they weren’t coming through because they don’t check shoes.

The airport was absolutely amazing and they also had acandy shop, which had very weird but cool looking candies in multiple shapes and colors.

They also had really clean water…the exact opposite of where I washeading. So right before we were about to get on the last plane to China a bunch of other tappers from other companies came running, getting in line for the flight to Beijing.

The plane to Beijing was even nicer than the one to Tokyo. It had separate TV’s for each person.So I watched Ratatouille while Luke skipped from movie to movie and finally stopped on Fantastic 4. Getting close to the endof the movie the flight attendants started handing out declaration papers,arrival and departure cards, and immigration papers which you were to fill outin order to get through security in the Beijing airport. When we landed and got through security, we got our luggage and headed towards this huge van where all of the dancers were supposedto be taken to the hotel. When I got to the hotel, I found my roommate Hannah Kenton from TWA (since Elizabeth got mono the day before we left and unfortunately could not come), got aroom, and headed up to my room. I didn’t even get up to my room until 12 am. Finally I took a shower, dried my hair and went to bed.